1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fluorescent lamps, and more specifically to lamp systems with wide-range dimming adjustments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fluorescent lamps provide high efficiency operation and long life. However, fluorescent lamps require ballasts that convert the operating voltages and regulate the current delivered to the lamps themselves. Traditional ballasts have only offered on and off operation, fluorescent lamps with dimming capability have been rare. Electronic ballasts with dimming capability form the basis of highly efficient energy and lighting management systems. Conventional lamp systems with dimming ranges that can go as low as 20% of the maximum light output use both magnetic and electronic dimming ballasts. High frequency electronic ballasts have extended the lower dimming range limit to as low as one percent of maximum and are becoming increasingly affordable and popular. Essentially, fluorescent dimming circuits control the lamp current.
Because fluorescent lamps have very nonlinear electrical characteristics, such dimming controls are not as simple as they are for incandescent lamps which require only simple variable resistors, for example. Dimming down to twenty percent with conventional fluorescent lamp ballasts can be done without using a special feed-back control. However, for more extended lower dimming ranges, some sort of feed-back control becomes necessary to avoid lamp flicker and unstable lamp operation. Lamp power and lamp current are each typically used as control variables in the implementation of a feed-back control circuit. Where the lamp light output or lamp power is used as the control variable, the dimming range that can be realized is limited. For very extended low-end dimming levels, sensing the lamp arc current becomes essential.
Dimming operation requires that the lamps be operated with their filaments heated. Each filament at the respective lamp ends will draw a heating current and an arc current that flows between the filament ends when a sufficiently high voltage is applied.
The fluorescent lamp arc current is a differential current between the filaments that can be measured by a current transformer in series with the high voltage supply. In conventional dimming ballasts, the output voltage of such a current transformer is rectified and converted to a DC voltage that is proportional to the arc current. The DC voltage is used in a feedback control to regulate the arc current. The ratio of full-bright current at maximum light output and full-dim current at minimum light output typically ranges from 20:1 to 100:1, depending on the fluorescent lamps and ballasts used. Often the feedback voltages that represent the full-dim current become too small to rectify from AC to DC and require more complex and elaborate conversion circuitry. Precision current transformers themselves are relatively expensive and the overall cost of conventional current sensing becomes prohibitive.
Pat. No. 5,424,614 for "Modified Half-Bridge Parallel-Loaded Series Resonant Converter Topology For Electronic Ballast," describes an output topology that enables the sensing of lamp arc current without adding magnetic components (current transformers) or any elaborate circuitry.